Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1805. Platina, Opus de vitis ac gestis summorum pontificum, Cologne, 1562, Genoese impresa binding of olive brown morocco, probably for Tommaso Franzone.

Platina, Opus de vitis ac gestis summorum pontificum, Cologne, 1562, Genoese impresa binding of olive brown morocco, probably for Tommaso Franzone

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

PLATINA, BARTOLOMEO. Opus de vitis ac gestis summorum pontificum, ad sua usque tempora deductum, et auctum deinde accessione rerum gestarum eorum pontificum, qui Paulo II. in quo Platina desinit usque ad Clementem eius nominis VII. successerunt. Cologne: Maternus Cholinus, 1562

GENOESE IMPRESA BINDING, PROBABLY FOR TOMMASO FRANZONE.

Nineteen bindings are now recorded with the impresa of a serpent entwined around a key, with the motto “Scilicet is superis labor est” (For sure, this is work for gods—Vergil, Aeneid, 4.379), stamped in gold in the centres of both covers. Inside are books in Latin printed between 1517 and 1566, at Basel, Cologne, Florence, Lyon, Mondovì, Paris and Venice, with Lyonese and Venetian imprints predominating. Two stamps were made, one (91 x 68 mm) for books in folio and quarto format, the other (66 x 48 mm) for octavos and duodecimos. The decoration is restrained: on the larger books, a frame composed of multiple gilt lines, with either a fleuron or fleur-de-lys at the corners; on the smaller ones, a frame containing foliage, with the same fleur-de-lys in corners. Red goatskin is employed for modern authors, olive or brown goatskin for ancient authors and ancient subjects. Each volume has a title lettered in the upper compartment, or vertically down the spine, suggesting how the books were displayed in their owner’s library. For more information on the nineteen recorded impresa bindings, see catalogue note for Bibliotheca Brookeriana I: Magnificent Books and Bindings, 11 October 2023, lot 22 (Budé).

Folio (306 x 200 mm). Roman type, 52 lines plus headline. collation: *⁴ ✝⁶ A-Z⁶ 2a-2E⁶ 2F-2N⁴ a-g⁶ h-m⁴: 272 leaves. Title-page with woodcut device of a coronet, a few marginal annotations in an early modern hand. (Dampstaining, old inkstain from ✝5-A2, slight worming at lower margin of penultimate leaf, final leaf with small paper repairs.)

binding: Genoese impresa binding (315 x 215 mm), mid-1560s russet morocco, blind fillets round sides, double frame of interlaced gilt fillets, leaf at outer angles of each frame, in centre an oval containing an impresa of a snake curling around a key with the motto "SCILICET IS SUPERIS LABOR EST", spine with 4 full bands and 5 false bands, 1-line title "PLATINA" in top compartment, gilt rosette in other compartments, plain edges. (Spine ends and corners neatly restored, lower endleaf removed.)

provenance: Probably Tommaso Franzone (d. 1627), purportedly with his impresa to covers—"Rdus D. Barth. Axentus Curatus Cassani", early modern ownership inscription on title-page—Congregazione della Missione (San Vincenzo De Paoli), Casale Monferrato, circular inkstamp on title-page—"Fantinetti ex Eppido Riguilorum", ownership inscription on upper pastedown—twentieth-century armorial bookplate with motto "Ex libris Dominici De Advocatis, comitis Odelli, equitis benensis"—Guido Bortolani, Modena, Mostra del libro antico (Milan), 16-18 March 2001, item 54. acquisition: Purchased in 2005 from Librairie Thomas-Scheler, Paris. references: USTC 615101; VD16 P 3263; A. Hobson, "A Genoese Book Collector", in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 2012, pp. 208–212, census no.14 ("Red goatskin faded"); cf. Foot, Henry Davis Gift III, items 333-335 (each assigned to Rome or possibly Genoa)

Estienne, Le herbe, fiori, stirpi [and other works], Venice, 1545, Venetian green morocco by the Fugger Binder for Cardinal Perrenot de Granvelle

Estimate:26,000 - 35,000 GBP

Gerardo, Vita et gesti d'Ezzolino terzo, Venice, 1544 [and other works], green morocco silver-tooled by the Fugger Binder for Cardinal Perrenot de Granvelle

Estimate:18,000 - 24,000 GBP

Guevara, La institutione del prencipe christiano, Venice, 1549, contemporary Parisian freehand gougework binding by Wotton Binder C

Estimate:4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Guevara, Aviso de favoriti e dottrina de cortegani, Venice, 1549, Bolognese armorial morocco gilt for B. Magnani

Estimate:6,000 - 8,000 GBP

Scriptores rei rusticae, Libri de re rustica, Venice, Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1514, contemporary English brown calf over wooden boards, Roger Ascham's copy

Estimate:25,000 - 35,000 USD

Ovidius Naso, Ouidii Metamorphoseon libri XV, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, October 1502, Parisian brown calf (1520s)

Estimate:8,000 - 10,000 USD

Bembo, Delle rime, Venice, 1548, nineteenth-century armorial blue morocco for the Marchese d'Adda, blue-paper copy

Estimate:8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Ovidius Naso, Le trasformationi, Venice, 1553, contemporary Venetian brown morocco gilt, the Roxburghe–Heber–Ashburnham–Vershbow copy

Estimate:8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Rabutin, Continuation des commentaires des dernieres guerres, contemporary Parisian painted mosaïque binding by the Grand Doreur for Antoine Escalin des Aimars

Estimate:40,000 - 60,000 GBP

Bembo, Prose, Florence, 1549, Parisian painted calf gilt for "F.B."

Estimate:8,000 - 12,000 GBP